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I have had good success with CA to porefill rosewood peghead overlays. I usually do two sessions with medium CA and sand back between with 220 dry. No big problem.

I've just pore filled my first complete body and sanding back with 220 using a sanding block and elbow grease is killing me. I've gone through several sheets and just can't get it back to wood. The paper loads with the CA quickly and I don't want to open new pores. I know because of the large area its going to take much more sanding. The peghead would sand back in a jiffy compared to this.

My question: Is 220 too fine? Can 150 or 180 be used without opening many new pores? Thanks for any help guys.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Scraper?

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

When I did CA pore fill, I used Klingspor 150 stearate coated paper .. doesnt load very much at all.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I use 180 klingspore on my ROS.

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I like a scraper after filling pores as it doesn't go into the grain like sandpaper can. A straight razor blade works well as a quick scraper as you can lightly scrape in both directions if you hold it lightly between thumb and your index and middle fingers. Since it's so sharp and doesn't have burrs like a regular scraper, it' works quickly with little effort. Just watch as it does cut quickly and because it's a razorblade it can cut you very easily.

I was using Klingspor's 220. Maybe I'll try the other. I have already used the scraper but once you get down to wood one or two good swipes will open up more pores than were filled. Even after sanding the sides flat there's just enough wave there for the scraper to hit and miss. I do like the CA as a filler just need to tweak my method a little. Thanks.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

A very fine-toothed file which has any edges that might come into contact with the wood 'safetied' (sanded round so they can't cut) works wonders with levelling CA. That's what I use on headplates and fretboards now if I need to leave inlay proud. The super-fine teeth don't cut wood very well. I use the same thing for trimming fret edges flush with a fretboard. Very fine metal-cutting files or especially Japanese sharpening files work well for this.

If you can, squeegee down or just rub down the CA with a cloth quickly (and don't glue yourself to anything!) on application. Sure, the cloth'll leave fibers all over the surface and look horrible at first, but it'll leave the CA layer thinner and all the ugly will scrape or sand right off.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

First like with zpoxy I work the CA into the pores at 45 degrees with a box cutter razor blade with rounded corners and scrape off excess . This leaves very little to scrape or sand away. Once cured I sand back with 150p to the wood and repeat the process if needed. I sand off all surface CA leaving only the pores filled so sand through to wood is the goal every where.